According to experts for 2030 there will be 21 million cases of cancer

Nicolás Tabárez

From Cali

The figures and data were made public at the 2018 Roche Press Day held in Cali, Colombia, during the first days of July. The goal of the last edition of the forum that takes place every year and which aims to generate a dialogue on health issues was about cancer.

One of the conclusions of the conference sessions was that, as the problem of cancer develops, the tools and research to combat it and treat it more effectively are also developing; In addition, discoveries and revolutions are produced in the form of focusing and attacking. And in particular, it happens with cancers that affect more people, such as prostate cancer in men and bad cancer in women.

Breast cancer is number one in incidence and mortality in Latin America and also in other parts of the world. There are different characteristics throughout the region. In Uruguay and Argentina, the incidence is very high; in Bolivia and Ecuador, it is very low. And this happens when compared with countries from other hemispheres. Uruguay has the same figures as countries in Europe or North America, partly because it shares the genetic origin and partly because the detection mechanisms of the disease are established and effective.

This indicates greater precision in the treatments, since each cancer is unique. During one of the Roche Press Day lectures, Argentine Daniel Ciriano, medical director of the pharmaceutical company for Latin America, explained that in the not too distant future each case will be treated individually , and that chemotherapy, surgeries and medications will be set aside in pursuit of a personalized vaccine, prepared on the basis of data on the patient and the disease. That the data and the real world dictate the treatment.

Ricardo Álvarez, also from Argentina, is an oncologist and has worked for two decades at the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Atlanta, USA. Questioned by El Observador during the event, explained that "mortality is very high in several countries and it is a defect in the health system that may be a lack of prevention , primary programs, equipment or patient access, each country has a different reality, the important thing is to educate and educate. "

Also, being a disease caused by a dysfunction of the genes, we have to identify them. Álvarez explained that it is more important to detect what is the genetic aberration that produces it than the location of the tumor.

The key is quick detection. In this way, the cost of the treatment is reduced by 17 times, because the more the disease is advanced, the more the expense is important. In this sense, self-diagnosis campaigns are one of the best tools, but they depend on the patient and therefore require a presence of awareness campaigns and information.

The differences are abysmal even in the interior of the continent, where there are patients who have to wait a year to go from the diagnostic stage to the beginning of the treatment.

Álvarez commented that the most important impact in developing countries is the fight against bad cancer, given that it is one of the most expensive diseases to treat and "can make any health system go bankrupt".

Regarding future treatments, the Argentinian oncologist developed what was postulated by Ciriano and stated that "multidisciplinary treatments are ongoing: the patient is not only treated by the Oncologist, but also by the radiotherapist surgeon. In this sense, the radical changes in the posture of the world against tobacco and the increasingly important importance of leading a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet partly respond to the greater strength that results from it. take cancer as a threat. "90% -95% are sporadic, come from hormones, diet, habits, solar radiation or the earth, there is no effect alone, others are more direct like the lungs and hereditary tobacco, because they are responsible for cancer, such as the BRCA-1 gene, which has a 70% chance of developing cancer at some point in life. "

But beyond genes, therapies and data, the fundamental point is always information. Álvarez's conclusion was: "I have no doubt that with the right message to the right people is the best way to act, we need to educate, not to say what to do, give options and let the patient take them with knowledge. "

Source: